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Rated: 18+ · Interactive · Fantasy · #1646527
Can you escape the Illithid city? This is an epic tale in the Dungeons & Dragons setting.
This choice: Argos Blackhammer, the Dwarven Blacksmith  •  Go Back...
Chapter #3

Argos Blackhammer, the Dwarven Blacksmith

    by: Slaad11 Author IconMail Icon
You are a master dwarven craftsman. You once made armor and weapons for kings and siege devices for armies, but since your capture by mind flayers some weeks ago, all you have crafted is gears, screws, cables, and other parts for some infernal machine, the purpose of which, you have no idea.

It happened during an expedition in which you accompanied your cartographer brother Fafnir, both for his protection and for the possibility of discovering rare minerals to use in your craft. You, your brother, three other dwarves, and one very large hired minotaur wielding a steel great axe that was your finest work, stumbled onto a group of five mind flayers. The minotaur beheaded one of the squid-men and you put another down, crushing its ribs with a mighty blow from your obsidian warhammer. But the remaining three used their mental powers to incapacitate you and your team. The minotaur became a puppet for the mind flayers, helping them to herd the rest of you deeper, into this underground city. The malevolent mind flayers reduced your brother and his companions into drooling idiots and herded them off, probably to have their brains eaten like bowls of chowder in a mess hall. You, on the other hand, were put to work. You surmise that the squidies were able to read your mind and saw that you were a skilled artisan.

So here you are, locked up in a dismal workshop, listening to a constant mechanical clatter, occasionally interrupted by some pathetic screams. A few days into your work, you tried crafting a weapon. You were nearly finished with it when the foul mind-reading squidies caught you and gouged out your left eye with it. Now, with only one eye left, you craft only what they tell you to, getting your orders from the slobbering mindless goblin thrall that brings your food and water. You bide your time and mask your thoughts as best you can, trying to somehow figure out a means of escape without actually thinking about it.
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